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Former Seattle Mariners Player Will Not Return to Coaching Staff in 2026
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- Former Seattle Mariners Player Will Not Return to Coaching Staff in 2026
(Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images)
The Seattle Mariners announced their player development and roving coordinator positions on Tuesday afternoon and two things stand out.
First, Zach Vincej, who won championships as a manager with the Mariners affiliates in Modesto (2023 and 2024) and Everett (2025), is not serving as a minor league manager this season. Instead, he's going to be the team's defense and baserunning coordinator.
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In the same breath, Michael Saunders , who was a baserunning coordinator in 2025, is not going to be back this season. This confirms something we thought was happening a few weeks ago.
Earlier this offseason, Kevin Glew, who does a great job of covering baseball in Canada, wrote that Saunders has moved back to Canada and has started "Saundo Athletics." He has founded - and committed to being at - four youth camps.
He has also decided to share his baseball expertise by launching his new business called " Saundo Athletics ," which will kick off with four baseball camps (for 8-to-14 year-olds) at Lambrick Park Field in Victoria in July and August.
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We reached out to Glew after that post to ask if that meant Saunders definitely wasn't returning to the Mariners, and got this response:
Sorry, I didn't ask him directly about this. But he has committed to being at the entirety of his four different camp sessions, so that's four weeks he will be in Victoria in July and August. My guess is that he is not returning to the Mariners in the same role as last year.
About Saunders
Drafted by the Mariners in the 11th round of the 2004 MLB Draft out of the Canadian high school ranks, he spent nine years in the big leagues with the M's, Toronto Blue Jays , and Philadelphia Phillies .
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A career .232 hitter, he hit 81 homers and 123 doubles while also stealing 55 bases. He hit .231 over six years with Seattle, hitting 51 homers. He earned an All-Star berth with the Blue Jays in 2016, finishing that season with 24 homers.
Toronto got to the American League Championship Series in 2016, and he hit a whopping .429 in the series against Cleveland , which the Jays lost in five games.
He also played in the 2008 Olympics for team Canada and represented Canada at the 2013 World Baseball Classic. He spent some time coaching in the Atlanta Braves minor league system and will also be coaching at his old high school this season.
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